Reginald Hudlin has been in the vanguard of the black independent cinema movement. The Illinois-raised director-screenwriter graduated from Harvard in 1983. Hudlin's first short films, the award-winning student work "House Party!" (1983) (his senior thesis), "The Kold Waves" (1984) and "Reggie's World of Soul" (1985) earned him inclusion on the VILLAGE VOICE's 1985 "Avant Pop" list of innovators. With his brother Warrington, he formed Hudlin Bros., Inc., a production company which has made several popular music videos for artists like Heavy D and the Boyz, Guy and Blue Magic.